Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to cleaning implements and more particularly to cleaning implements used in cleaning a barrel of a firearm.
Barrel cleanliness is extremely important to firearm users. A clean firearm barrel is a prerequisite to consistent accuracy and also safety. Conversely, barrel obstructions decrease the accuracy of a fired projectile and, in extreme situations, can pose a real safety hazard. While safety is important to all firearm users, accuracy is especially desirable in the field of competitive marksmanship. In the field of competitive marksmanship, a firearm is expected to perform in a consistent manner. To maintain such desirable consistency, a marksman may clean his or her firearm as frequently as after every four or five rounds of ammunition, or even after every round of ammunition, fired through the barrel.
Typically, the barrel of a firearm, or gun, is cleaned by running a rod with an attached cleaning implement, such as a brush, a swab, or a slotted cleaning head with a cloth patch inserted therethrough, from the muzzle end of the barrel to the breech end of the barrel, or vice versa depending on the type of firearm to which the barrel is attached. Sometimes, the cleaning implement is oscillated to and fro through or within the barrel, as if to scrub particulates from the barrel sidewalls. Furthermore, prior cleaning implements may, after having been inserted into the barrel through the muzzle end, be completely or partially withdrawn from the muzzle end before being reinserted completely into the barrel.
Some prior devices have been developed for so-called breech-to-muzzle cleaning of a gun barrel, both for open breech firearms, such as bolt or break action guns, and for closed breech firearms, such as automatic and semi-automatic guns having action and assemblies located near the breech. For instance, Rambo, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,975, discloses a breech-to-muzzle cleaning apparatus for use with exposed breech barrels such as those on a break action or lever action firearm, the apparatus including a receptacle for particulates and cleaning patches. Further, Hayes, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,000, discloses a pull-through breech-to-muzzle cleaning apparatus for use with semi-automatic or other slide action firearm, such as a pump action.
An open breech firearm was usually cleaned in the following manner. A cleaning implement was placed in a generally longitudinally fixed coaxial arrangement with a cleaning rod, such as by being threadably engaged therewith. The cleaning rod had a handle that swiveled or rotated to allow the rod and attached cleaning implement to rotate to follow the rifling formed into the inside surface of the barrel. Known cleaning implements were brushes, swabs or cloth patches mounted on jags or slotted heads. The implement was usually wetted with a cleaning solvent. While unidirectional cleaning is possible with prior devices, it is extremely cumbersome and time consuming because of the longitudinal fixation of the cleaning implement to the rod.
Although prior devices have been developed for desired barrel cleaning, there remains room for improvement in the art of firearm maintenance for systems and methods for barrel cleaning having a minimized impact on firearm accuracy.